Link Journalism Drives Page Views and Engagement

There’s an article page on GoVolXtra, Knoxnews.com’s sports vertical site for the Tennessee Vols, that accounted for 6% of ALL Knoxnews and GoVolXtra article page views for the last two weeks, and as much as 14% of all article page views one of the days since it was first published. The page has consistently generated about twice as many page views as the next most visited page. And the article has racked up nearly 300 comments, becoming a nexus for discussion and debate on the hot topic that it covers — who will replace University of Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer.

What’s notable about this article is that it is almost entirely LINKS:

We’re out to give GoVolsXtra readers the latest in coach sightings right up until the press conference to announce the next head coach of the Volunteers no matter who has the story. Check this list often; we’ll be adding to it.

And check back often they have.

Everyday the article is updated with a fresh roundup of links (saved on Publish2) to coverage of the search for a new coach, including links sent in by readers:

And everyday, fans keep coming back for more.

So you’ve got consistent engagement. You’ve got an article that consistently generates more page views than any other on the site.

Why this works with sports is because fans are passionate and can’t get enough information on their teams and games. And there is plenty of external coverage from other media, some thousands of miles away, to local bloggers looking to build up their audience.

Here’s perhaps the most important lesson about the success of this effort at link journalism — it didn’t happen over night.

Link-driven coverage roundup articles have been appearing on GoVolsXtra for months, and readers have learned to like them. They’ve come to see GoVolsXtra not just as a source for Knox News Sentinel’s own original reporting on the Tennessee Vols, but for ALL the best reporting and commentary on the Vols.

Most news sites don’t do aggregation, they don’t help their readers find the best content on the topics that interest them. So when they start doing so, it may take readers a while to discover this new dimension of news value.